Kaibigan – Friend

We were thrilled to host a friend from the States for one week. Elizabeth VanDrunen made a stop in The Philippines as she “travels the world”. She is from the Chicago, IL area, and has been living in MI, teaching grade school, for several years. She recently just spent 3 months teaching English in a foster home in India. She is making a few more stops at various places before making her way back to the USA. We had a great time with her, and our kids thought she was a blast! 🙂

The day Liz arrived, we visited the American WWII cemetery. It was neat, and a bit sobering, to see the history there.

Beautiful grounds!
Another night, we went up to Cloud 9, to get a great view of Manila.

360-degree view!
We also went out to eat and Liz got to experience a bunch of Filipino food! 🙂

The “Family Banquet” meal that we ordered
One morning, the ladies went out – Liz, Sharon Kleyn, Kirsten, Kiley, and I. Sharon helped us on our first jeepney and trike rides! We checked out a very well-known Catholic Church, Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage; walked through some street markets; looked at a cemetery; and went to a wet market.

See Liz peeking in the background? 🙂
Other activities included swimming, walks through the neighborhood, Thursday night doctrine class, church, and Tagalog classes. Liz also spoiled our kids by doing tons of crafts with them. 🙂 We really enjoyed our time with her and look forward to seeing her again someday.

One other noteworthy event is the arrival of a surprise package. Yesterday we received a box from Doon, IA! It was a very welcome surprise. They titled it “a box of sunshine”, with everything in it following a yellow theme. There were some silly things and some very thoughtful things, and our whole family had a lot of fun unpacking the various treasures. Many, many thanks to the families who had a part in that!

How fun you could spend some time getting to know Liz!! I’m sure she enjoyed your fellowship as much as you enjoyed hers. Looks like you guys are doing great and having some very fun adventures! And how fun to get a “box of sunshine” from the states 🙂 Prayers for you all as always!